Welcome to the Frontlines ya'll. This is Talbot Hall. Talbot Hall opened in April of 1998, and provides assessment and treatment to 500 male prisoners. Talbot Hall provides comprehensive assessment, treatment and life-skills training services, and then refers its residents to an appropriate halfway house to begin participation in work-release. Lecture halls, offices, kitchen, cafeteria, recreation rooms and dormitories are all housed within its 66,000 square feet. Talbot Hall's nearly 10 acres of land are adjacent to the Hudson County Jail Annex in an industrial area of Kearny, NJ. I was there yesterday, took that picture with my cell phone. First time I saw the front of this place as a free man. I was there accompanying a friend of mine who happens to be an attorney. She was going to see a client. During my last bid I was sent to Talbot Hall this was in 2000 I believe. I had just left Leesburg State Prison, granted I wasn't at Leesburg for 10 or 20, 30 years like some of the brothas I built with but regardless is was nothing nice. I was there long enough to testify.
While at Leesburg I started with max status, worked down to medium towards the end of my stay then got sent to Talbot Hall. Leesburg State Prison was on lock down from the time I got there progressively got worse and was still locked down when I left. Don't know the current status.
An officer was stabbed to death just before I arrived at Leesburg. Red lines were painted everywhere on the grounds, dead zones. They were to constrict all necessary movements. There was no mess hall movements, we were fed on our units. There was no big yard, cages were constructed for each individual unit. These cages were a hell I ain't going to get into right now. These painted red lines were a symbol of the blood shed by their fallen fellow officer. There was an unwritten rule if anyone stepped on the red lines, you was going to get the beating of your life. I caught flashes of a few of them beat downs. Can't let them see you looking though or your next. Anytime you see the goon squad you are to turn and face the nearest wall and stare at the bricks.
If the atmosphere wasn't thick enough the the Latin Kings and the Bloods were ready to go to war. It was very tense to say the least. Let me put it to you like this, everybody was arming themselves when they called my name, "305375" your being shipped, pack it up. It wouldn't have been my first war, but it could have been my last.
That's what I came from a mad house when I reached Talbot Hall. I never been to a place like it. They call it an assessment center. I viewed it as what prisons should be like for a majority of the prison population. It was a healthy environment. Leesburg was in the top 5 most unhealthy environments I ever been in in my life. It literally was designed to break down the human spirit. Talbot Hall was about building you up. There were positive slogans all over the place. You were treated like a human being. We attend classes and groups all day, everything was about being positive. I wondered why I wasn't put into a place like that when I was 17. A lot of things would have been different had I attended a program like this back then. Instead I was fighting for my life on Riker's Island in New York.
They instead chose to lock me up or keep me under some type of supervision. These did not help the problem, they aggravated the problem. I needed structure, I needed discipline. Healthy discipline a healthy daily routine. Life deals out some rough hands. Does some major damage on ones head. It can be corrected though. Sure there are some hard cases, but if you didn't warehouse those that can be repaired you can focus more on the harder cases. For the most part a majority of prisoners can be repaired. I don't understand why society has a problem with this. If we are the land of opportunity then let's create some instead of more prison cells.
Talbot Hall to me is the perfect model of a civilized prison, a true correctional facility. I don't know if it has changed, but when I was there the staff was incredible. I had built a foundation self educating myself to the point where I obtained my GED while at Lees burg, Talbot gave me some other things to run with, and I'm still running with it.
Sitting outside Talbot I have to admit, I felt sick. Though I may have got some good things out of there, what I went through to get it, was damaging. You don't understand a majority of these men and women are no real threat to society. I was not a real threat to society. The evidence used against me and actually still is, is far from the truth. No where is it written in the law that imprisonment are to be in less than human conditions. I trust that anyone of sound mind that spends a short period of time in confinement will know this alone can drive a man insane. Why do we as a society chose to destroy a human oppose to helping the individual reach his highest potential. I would see this as much more rewarding in all aspects.
Talbot Hall is not the answer to all but I believe if more troubled youth and adults were confined to healthier environments it would be a start. In history they just never gave it a fair try. The few times they tried rehabilitation was enough to prove it's more cost effective and does in fact reduce crime, but it wasn't substantial enough in the allowed amount of time. Societies mind frame changed, to merciless. I clearly see the damage that was done to me. I struggle to function in society now. Some that leave prison may have the support and means to go back to a merry life and never look back, God bless them. What about the rest of us?
While at Leesburg I started with max status, worked down to medium towards the end of my stay then got sent to Talbot Hall. Leesburg State Prison was on lock down from the time I got there progressively got worse and was still locked down when I left. Don't know the current status.
An officer was stabbed to death just before I arrived at Leesburg. Red lines were painted everywhere on the grounds, dead zones. They were to constrict all necessary movements. There was no mess hall movements, we were fed on our units. There was no big yard, cages were constructed for each individual unit. These cages were a hell I ain't going to get into right now. These painted red lines were a symbol of the blood shed by their fallen fellow officer. There was an unwritten rule if anyone stepped on the red lines, you was going to get the beating of your life. I caught flashes of a few of them beat downs. Can't let them see you looking though or your next. Anytime you see the goon squad you are to turn and face the nearest wall and stare at the bricks.
If the atmosphere wasn't thick enough the the Latin Kings and the Bloods were ready to go to war. It was very tense to say the least. Let me put it to you like this, everybody was arming themselves when they called my name, "305375" your being shipped, pack it up. It wouldn't have been my first war, but it could have been my last.
That's what I came from a mad house when I reached Talbot Hall. I never been to a place like it. They call it an assessment center. I viewed it as what prisons should be like for a majority of the prison population. It was a healthy environment. Leesburg was in the top 5 most unhealthy environments I ever been in in my life. It literally was designed to break down the human spirit. Talbot Hall was about building you up. There were positive slogans all over the place. You were treated like a human being. We attend classes and groups all day, everything was about being positive. I wondered why I wasn't put into a place like that when I was 17. A lot of things would have been different had I attended a program like this back then. Instead I was fighting for my life on Riker's Island in New York.
They instead chose to lock me up or keep me under some type of supervision. These did not help the problem, they aggravated the problem. I needed structure, I needed discipline. Healthy discipline a healthy daily routine. Life deals out some rough hands. Does some major damage on ones head. It can be corrected though. Sure there are some hard cases, but if you didn't warehouse those that can be repaired you can focus more on the harder cases. For the most part a majority of prisoners can be repaired. I don't understand why society has a problem with this. If we are the land of opportunity then let's create some instead of more prison cells.
Talbot Hall to me is the perfect model of a civilized prison, a true correctional facility. I don't know if it has changed, but when I was there the staff was incredible. I had built a foundation self educating myself to the point where I obtained my GED while at Lees burg, Talbot gave me some other things to run with, and I'm still running with it.
Sitting outside Talbot I have to admit, I felt sick. Though I may have got some good things out of there, what I went through to get it, was damaging. You don't understand a majority of these men and women are no real threat to society. I was not a real threat to society. The evidence used against me and actually still is, is far from the truth. No where is it written in the law that imprisonment are to be in less than human conditions. I trust that anyone of sound mind that spends a short period of time in confinement will know this alone can drive a man insane. Why do we as a society chose to destroy a human oppose to helping the individual reach his highest potential. I would see this as much more rewarding in all aspects.
Talbot Hall is not the answer to all but I believe if more troubled youth and adults were confined to healthier environments it would be a start. In history they just never gave it a fair try. The few times they tried rehabilitation was enough to prove it's more cost effective and does in fact reduce crime, but it wasn't substantial enough in the allowed amount of time. Societies mind frame changed, to merciless. I clearly see the damage that was done to me. I struggle to function in society now. Some that leave prison may have the support and means to go back to a merry life and never look back, God bless them. What about the rest of us?
posted by Capital-X at 11:02 AM
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